British Actor Henry Cavill Is New Movie SUPERMAN

By Chris Arrant, Newsarama Contributor January 30, 2011 10:11am ET

Actor Henry Cavill Is New SUPERMAN

It looks like Warner Bros. has found their new Superman.

According to Hollywood industry news website Deadline, British actor Henry Cavill has been cast to play Superman in the upcoming franchise reboot reportedly titled Man of Steel, currently slated for December 2012. While not a complete unknown commodity that some movie studios like to cast for such a major role, Cavill is a relatively blank slate when it comes to the movie-going public at large. His biggest role to date has been on the cable TV series The Tudors, and has a starring role in the upcoming Greek god epic Immortals as the warrior Theseus.

This isn’t the first time Cavill’s name has been brought up to play Superman — back when Brett Ratner and McG were in talks to helm a Superman flick prior to Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, Cavill was a frontrunner in the role that ultimately went to Brandon Routh when Singer came onboard. After that film didn’t live up to Warner Bros. box office expectations — especially in light of the success of the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman films — the studio went about assembling a new group to rehabilitate their franchise. Although this will be Cavill’s first time as a superhero, he acted in previous comics-to-film flick Stardust and his work in Immortals should do much to introduce him to genre fans.

This reboot of the Superman franchise is coming from Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures, who picked Christopher Nolan to produce and spearhead the search for a director after his success with the Batman films. Late in 2010 Nolan announced that frequent comics-to-film director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) had been chosen to helm this new Superman production, which will recast the franchise in a modern light, similar to what Nolan did to Batman with 2005’s Batman Begins.

Last year, Andrew Garfield — an actor with dual British and American citizenship raised in England — was cast as another American superhero icon, Spider-Man. Christian Bale, who has played Batman in 2005's Batman Begins, 2008's The Dark Knight and the forthcoming 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises, is also British.